Dragon Little, my Dragon Little, was all alone on her third birthday. 

Dragon Father did not appear as usual. He was gone. He must have stayed up the entire night in his waking world and from the time he disappeared in the middle of an adventure to the time he reappeared on Bonny’s Revenge, almost two days have passed. 

In the year I have been in his dream, in the year since he and Dragon Little rescued me from slavery, he had never mentioned her birthday. Nor did he mention it in the next year. 

Dragon Little clearly did not know it was her birthday. It is possible she did not know what a birthday was.

But I… a dragon who has lived for centuries, who knows many secrets of the Dream, who knows what and who Joy - my Dragon Little - truly is… I knew when she was born. My enslavers knew when she was born. They were no doubt still looking for her. 

Far above her, in my hiding place where no one would hopefully ever find me, I looked at her pass the time on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge, playing in the crow’s nest and trying to repeatedly climb the roof of her cabin. 

I wished her a happy birthday. I sang a birthday song for her in my heart. I blew her a kiss from afar, and I watched. 

Dragon Little, my sweet, wonderful Dragon Little. May you live to be an old woman. May you never leave your father’s dream. May you never be found by those who seek you. May you have a good life!

Happy and sad for her, I watched her play and celebrated her birthday in my heart. 

—Told by The Red Dragon